Drinking on the job

Some of us typically hit a bar after work, but how about during work? And it’s OK with the boss.

The Alexandria, Va., office of The National Beer Wholesalers Association — which advocates on behalf of, you guessed it, beer — strikes you as a very unpretentious place as soon as you walk in the door, perhaps because they’ve installed their own little watering hole.

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“You can’t very well not have a bar in the office when you’re representing the beer industry,” said NBWA President and CEO Craig Purser. “I mean, for heaven’s sakes.”

That’s just the start. Not only is the bar’s fridge stocked with an impressive array of brews, but the office walls are a college student’s dreams: beer posters of every shape and size (thankfully, no neon).

Purser fits the bill of America’s beer man in Washington perfectly. While he’s that Midwestern, “Everyday Joe” you’d like to throw a few back with, he can smoothly move in and out of talk of both pubs and policy. He’s got the body type of someone who enjoys beer but keeps it under control (he had a beer and a half during our visit and made sure that we weren’t about to get behind the wheel on the way home).

Purser joined the NBWA in 1996, having previously worked as a staffer for Sen. Don Nickles and on the senatorial campaign of Jim Inhofe (R-Okla.).

“Usually, you’ll see me, whether I’m at a function or an event or a reception. I’m usually drinking beer, and I’m usually drinking it in a clear glass,” Purser said. “It’s an occupational hazard.”

The concept of representing alcohol in Washington is hardly new. The NBWA is joined by its counterparts like the Distilled Spirits Council of the United States and the Wine & Spirits Wholesalers of America (sometimes allies on legislation, sometimes not). But, as you might expect, he thinks he’s got the better gig. (According to OpenSecrets.org, the NBWA spent $930,000 on lobbying efforts in 2011.)

“There’s a distinction between the products,” Purser said. “Beer is unique. It’s unique because it brings people together. It’s a product that you can enjoy on most occasions. It’s a celebration product.”

“When we’re drinking something else, it’s opposition research,” he jokes, adding that there really is serious work to be done, bar stools aside. For the 2012 election cycle, the NBWA is focused on “getting people back to work,” Purser said.

“It’s doing whatever is necessary to kick-start this situation to where we can work on that unemployment number.”

Usually, however, the NBWA can find a fun way to go about moving hearts and minds on Capitol Hill. In 2006, for instance, they sent senators a bottle of Blue Moon during the debate over repealing the estate tax, arguing that such an opportunity comes about only once in a, well, you get the punch line. Purser keeps a bottle from that campaign on a shelf in his office.